Reader DJ writes in Tips & Notes:
Since becoming a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists when I found out all you needed was a valid credit card, my curiosity about who and what they really are has spiked.
Chief Executive Kevin Knobloch makes $229,000/yr, and isn’t even a scientist. He has a masters in public administration. UCS has a staff of 121 with an AVERAGE salary of $92,000/yr. 15% of their income goes to fundraising and administration.
$5.4Mil, or roughly 1/3 of their program budget is spent on climate, and $460,000 is spent on “legislative”. (Lobbying?)
I’m now receiving emails from them soliciting donations, in the same format as the save-the-whales/puppies/children/ pleas.
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Seems to me like just another NGO with policy predicated on distributing FUD. Gotta love the way they combine global warming and nuclear war in the header. – Anthony
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DJ your the man,who would have thought,incredible.
What’s their strap line? I can’t quite read it.
“Citizens & Stalinists for Environmental Solutions”
Wouldn’t it be good to found a Union of Sceptical Scientists and Engineers with chapters around the globe and competent to comment on scientific issues without leftist or similar bias ?
So, for $25 I can become a scientist, and a concerned one at that.
You don’t have to donate $25 – there is an option for any other amount.
$So 0.02 would do and would make your point.
old44, AND join a union! I can’t wait until the benefits kick in!
I think this sums up the financial merry-go-round that depends upon AGW being fact and this also explains the hysteria that the warmists resort to when people question their dogma.
I do not pretend to know a great deal about American politics so please don’t shoot me down in flames, Rick Perry one of the Republican candidates for US President has stated that the whole AGW is a scam and scientists are making billions of dollars out of it.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/08/rick-perry-climate-change-is-a-hoax-drummed-up-by-scientists-looking-to-make-money.php
As far as I am aware he is the only senior politician to question AGW, certainly on our side of the Atlantic, no-one does.
Bigger-than-Madoff scams spiraling infinitely around AGW fears are well designed to funnel money from countless acolytes of the Church of Doom-is-just-around-the-corner-and-it’s-your-fault-so-gimme-a-dollar-and-I-won’t-tell-Gaia… Ugh.
I began to wonder what environmental scientists were up to when two incredibly common plants (also edible) were listed in Oregon and California as “threatened”.
I asked the main scientists at Camp Hancock in Eastern Oregon, “Why are these plants listed that way? They may as well be dandelions – they cover every hill for hundreds of thousands of square miles… What could possibly threaten them?”
His answer, encapsulated, “Don’t trust your lying eyes – trust the scientists, they know what they’re talking about.” I began to wonder if ANYTHING environmentalists said was true from that day on.
This was in 1979 when man was somehow causing glaciers to grow and the New Ice Age to come was just-around-the-corner-and-it’s-all-our-fault… Heh.
Brilliant! What’s in a name, hey? Be sceptical of all words you hear or read.
The word, `scientist’, used to mean something but not so much now.
It has been hijacked by so many left and right political causes, that a majority of Australians do not attach any special `respect’ to the views of supposed `scientists’ anymore. Used car salesmen and journalists are held in less regard, but it has just become a question of degree.
Sad that, if it is true that AGW is a dud theory or even a decent theory that has yet to be verified and is eating up inordinate resources because of self promoters and political hijacking, that we are yet to see the mass revolt of the scientific community that the Bear would expect if, say, the authority of the medical profession was being trashed by a subdiscipline that had headed off down a wrong track.
Where is the pushback? Where, for that matter, is the outrage from the rest of the world’s scientists if AGW is a weak and wrong as this site suggests?
Face of the sun?
http://youtu.be/X67VMG3D6Vg
This is even cheaper than the diploma mills. Twenty-five bucks and you’re a Scientist; a Concerned one at that.
(Act now and you’ll also receive a free set of Ginsu knives! Operators are standing by.)
If you look at their annual report you will a long list of donors. It’s all the usual liberal names including a George Soros Foundation.
http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/ucs/annual-report-2010.pdf
I think RICO laws would apply here.
H.R.
For 25 bucks you only get photoshopped pictures of Ginsu knives that look like they are cutting through a bolt. For 50 bucks you get a set of virtual Ginsu Knives that will dance on your computer screen.
I think I’ll start my own union of concerned whatever…I could earn a mighty salary for doing squat and lying about it, don’t you think? Wouldn’t have to fly to Kurdistan anymore, or endure airports and 55-degree (C)(adjusted for AGW) temperatures any more. What a concept. I have the P-pal donate-button code somewhere….let’s see…oh here it is….
Why are you surprised that the appellation “scientist” (not even euphonious, at that) is available to the concerned for a dime? Nothing new in recent years.
David Cameron would like to employ an American to help the UK. I also would like Cameron to employ an American – Rick Perry. To give Cameron a few wake up ideas about what to do with any so called Green Initiative. Scrap the lot for a start.
My credit/debit cards are not going anywhere near the Union of Concerned Scientists.
If you join this union, what will you do when they go on strike to demand greater health care benefits to cover the coming expenses from (C)AGW-caused and acerbated illness? What payments can you expect from their strike fund? Is it possible to refuse to do anything scientific until the strike ends?
Jeff Masters hardest hit! LMAO
I looked at the UCS website and was fascinated by the promotion for the Model E all electric car. Missing from the page was any information about dealers, warranties, price, etc, the kind of things you’d want to know about if you actually wanted to buy one. The claim that the buggy has a 100 mile range neglected to mention use of accesories like heating and air conditioning that certainly impact energy use. Where I live in the upper midwest, outdoor temperatures can be -20F in winter. Seems to me the range might be reduced considerably. All of which leads me to conclude there is no Model E in a production sense, just a fancy jpeg they put on the website.
UCS was primarily anti-nuke in its earlier days, which means it was always a Soviet front.
Still is. Only difference is that Soviet fronts used to be run from Russia. Since 1989 they’ve been run from Washington DC, which requires less translation.
Manfred’s idea is good, but problematic. Any organized group that tries to lobby in DC ends up being Soviet. It’s an unavoidable contagion. Only way to stay truthful is to stay disorganized. (See O’Sullivan’s Law.)
Great idea, but I’d suggest “The Union of Rational Scientists.”
/Mr Lynn
Oh dear. Pick an Armageddon, any Armageddon. We’re all doomed unless you give us your money …
They have what is called a “scientific integrity calendar”, with twelve cartoons for what passes for humor in the wonderous koolaid-inspired world of greenies. Here are this years’ offerings, with a chance for people to vote for their favorite, to go on the cover. Note the poor, valiant, beleagured “scientists”, and the way they portray the opposition. Not only do they not understand science, but they don’t seem to have the slightest inkling of what humor is. Fun, but have barf bag handy.
http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/science_idol/2011-science-idol-contestants.html?autologin=true